


Complex Harmonic Vibrations

by wheel_pen



Series: Khan AU [9]
Category: Sherlock (TV), Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-24
Updated: 2015-10-24
Packaged: 2018-04-27 23:29:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,153
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5069029
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wheel_pen/pseuds/wheel_pen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kirk awakens to find Khan leaning over him, most of his crew unconscious, and some dead aliens scattered about. Seems like he missed something exciting.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Complex Harmonic Vibrations

**Author's Note:**

> The bad words are censored. That’s just how I do things.  
> I hope you enjoy this AU. I own nothing and appreciate the chance to play in this universe.

The immediate problem was that something was dripping into his mouth, something metallic that instinctively made him gag. When he did so, he found that something else was holding him down and forcing the liquid—remarkably like blood—into his mouth, and that also seemed like a bad thing.

“Calm down, Kirk.” Khan’s voice, arrogant, exasperated. This did not improve the situation.

Kirk forced his eyes open, recognized the Augment leader bending over him, beyond him the ceiling of the Bridge. If he was on the Bridge, and Khan was the one helping him—no McCoy or Spock hovering in his line of sight—things must be very bad indeed.

He shoved Khan’s hand away and tried to sit up, awkward and rolling, gripping the seat of his chair for support. He wiped warm liquid away from his mouth and saw that it was blood, Khan’s blood he assumed, given that the other man was holding his wrist tightly. Infuriatingly, he waited silently for Kirk to get his bearings, for the healing blood to clear his head and ease his bruised muscles. Khan was in no hurry to tell him what was going on.

From the floor Kirk could see Sulu and Chekhov slumped at their posts. He ducked under his chair and saw the rest of the Bridge crew, draped over their consoles or passed out on the floor. Spock was to his right and he scrambled over to check his pulse, relief flooding through him when he found it, strong and steady.

“Khan,” Kirk finally said, staggering to his feet, “what the f—k?!”

Khan rose gracefully, checking the wound on his wrist to see that it had healed already. “Mind the mess,” he warned, and Kirk looked down to see a golden yellow puddle oozing in front of the navigation console. He would deal with that later.

“Khan—“ He needed information and he needed it _now_.

“Everything is perfectly fine,” Khan claimed, his tone almost soothing. “There’s nothing to worry about. How do you feel?”

Like he’d been dropped into a parallel, twisted universe. Kirk banged on a button on his chair. “Kirk to Scotty!” The engines were off, the ship at a dead stop.

“ _Hi, Captain!_ ” It was Ruby who cheerfully answered.

“Ruby, where’s Scotty?” Kirk demanded, easing himself into his chair.

“ _Oh, Scotty’s not available right now_ ,” she replied, like he was just in the shower or something. “ _But don’t worry, everything is okay down here_.”

Kirk rubbed his face hard, hoping that might scrub some sense into the world. It didn’t. “Ruby, I really need to talk to Scotty,” he insisted.

“ _Keenser’s here_ ,” she offered instead. “ _Do you want to talk to_ him _?_ ”

Kirk paused as he couldn’t recall ever hearing Keenser speak, though Scotty constantly complained about how chatty he was. “Just—is the warp core stable?” he asked, leaving open who could answer.

“ _Oh yes, it’s fine_ ,” Ruby promised. “ _All the lights are blue. That means it’s asleep! Well, off, but operational_ ,” she rephrased.

“Okay. Thanks,” Kirk told her. He stabbed another button. “Kirk to Sickbay. McCoy?” he asked hopefully.

“ _No, sorry, it’s me_ ,” Hamish answered dryly. “ _McCoy’s alright though, he’s just unconscious_.”

“Is everyone on the ship unconscious?” Kirk guessed, looking at Khan.

“ _Sorry, are you asking_ me _?_ ” Hamish queried.

“Casualty report, Hamish,” Khan requested professionally, instead.

“ _About a dozen minor injuries, mostly from falling when they passed out_ ,” Hamish responded. “ _Everyone is accounted for and the wounded are being treated in Sickbay. No deaths_ ,” he added reassuringly.

“Wouldn’t say _that_ ,” Khan corrected archly.

“ _No deaths of the_ crew,” Hamish clarified. “ _Er,_ our _crew_.”

“Wait, what other crew _is_ there?” Kirk wanted to know. His head snapped up to face Khan. “Not your—“

“No, my family is safe, but thank you for asking so promptly,” Khan replied, and Kirk could not spare the brain power to decide if he was being sarcastic or not.

“You’ve got Sickbay, Hamish?” Kirk checked. “Do you need any help?”

“ _No, we’re alright here, Captain_ ,” Hamish assured him. Kirk felt better about Hamish in Sickbay than Ruby in Engineering, since Hamish was in fact a doctor.

“Who’s we?” Kirk had to ask.

“ _Oh, I’ve got… four people helping me_ ,” Hamish responded, as if he was looking around. “ _Lt. Sk’nil, Ensign Parvis, Lt. Raytheon, and Ensign Bo_.”

Not medical personnel, Kirk realized, but certainly all capable of treating simple injuries with supervision and the computer. “Okay. Call if you need anything,” Kirk urged him. He went back to Engineering while Khan waited with infinite patience, seemingly amused by Kirk’s need to reassure himself about his ship. “Ruby, I need a damage report,” he requested.

“ _Oh, okay, I’ve got one!_ ” she replied with some excitement, as if she’d just been waiting for him to ask. “ _Okay, hmm, let’s see… Minor interior damage. Ooh, a few biological messes to clean up. Shields are holding at one hundred percent. Engines are fine. No holes in the ship. Life support reserves are fine. I think it’s almost completely okay_ ,” she concluded brightly.

“Okay, could Keenser get the impulse engines going?” Kirk asked. He didn’t like sitting there, wherever they were, cold and still.

“ _Yes_ ,” Ruby agreed confidently. “ _Shall we warm up the warp engine?_ ”

“No, no,” Kirk denied quickly. Keenser probably knew how to do it, but it wasn’t exactly a one-person job, and any misalignment would blow them into stardust. “Just impulse is fine. Let me know. Thank you.” He cut the channel.

Khan smirked at him. “So courteous!” he mocked. “I’m sure Mr. Scott would appreciate more of that.”

Kirk was not in the mood. His people were okay, his ship was okay, but he needed some more answers _right now_. “What is going on? Are you taking over the ship?” he guessed. He didn’t really believe that, but he hoped it would get the ball rolling. “’Cause this isn’t exactly how I envisioned it going.”

“Oh, trust me, Kirk, if I take over your ship, you won’t have to ask if it’s happening,” Khan promised him, a little too seriously. “No, we _saved_ the ship.”

“You and Ruby and Hamish?” Kirk was hoping he hadn’t awakened any buddies.

“And the members of your crew who weren’t unconscious,” Khan added. “Have you noticed how hominid-centric your ship and, indeed, Starfleet are?” he pondered. “Virtually no high-ranking officers look significantly different from humans. Clearly this is a bias deeply embedded in your collective consciousness, which ignores the many possible benefits of non-hominid—“

“Khan,” Kirk interrupted, “are _you_ lecturing me about the virtues of diversity?” This really _was_ a parallel universe. A funhouse-mirror universe.

“I can do that later,” Khan conceded. “The point is, most of your crew was unconscious, except for the few with significantly different anatomy, so they helped save the ship as well.” At least he believed in credit where credit was due.

“And you guys weren’t unconscious, either, of course,” Kirk assumed of the Augments.

“We might have been,” Khan admitted, “but only briefly. Which was fortunate because I’m not sure your remaining crewmembers could have repelled the invaders without my decisive leadership—“

Kirk’s head snapped up. “Invaders? What invaders?”

“The ones who rendered everyone unconscious, of course,” Khan said, as though Kirk was being slow. “We suspect it was some kind of complex harmonic vibration they swept across the ship—“

Kirk jumped to his feet urgently. “How many are there? Where are they? What kind of weapons—“ Khan was just looking at him like he’d missed something. “Khan!” Kirk snapped. He was supposed to be a man of _action_ , this was no time for more disdainful pronouncements.

“I told you, we repelled them already,” he repeated, enunciating more clearly in case that was the problem. “It’s all over, Kirk, there’s nothing for you to do.”

Kirk sat back down in his command chair, feeling the bitter irony of not having any commands to give. He tried not to sound petulant as he asked, “Well, what did you wake me up for, then?”

Khan shrugged as though it hadn’t been his idea. “Ruby said we ought to, it would look bad to the others if we didn’t,” he claimed off-hand. “And we didn’t know how long people would stay unconscious. It’s _rather_ untidy with all the bodies lying around. Not _dead_ bodies, they’re perfectly fine,” he said when Kirk looked alarmed. “You ought to pay better attention to what I say.”

“Holy s—t, Khan,” was the only response Kirk could think of as he leaned back in his chair. “Okay, so these aliens attack the crew, knock them out. _Most_ of them,” he corrected quickly. “What aliens? Where did they come from?” He didn’t remember anything worrisome happening, right before he stopped remembering anything at all.

“We believe their ship was in stealth mode, possibly also through the use of complex harmonic vibrations,” Khan described, with some interest. “I wonder if they’re a musically-inclined people?”

“What species?” Kirk asked, trying to stay focused. “And… where are we, anyway?”

“Where we were before,” Khan shrugged, stepping around the navigation console to the front of the Bridge. He crouched down out of Kirk’s view. “The computer won’t tell _me_ anything about our location,” he added, sounding a bit grumpy about this. “But the engines stopped when the crew passed out, probably—“

“Complex harmonic vibrations, right,” Kirk anticipated wearily.

As if on cue Ruby signaled. “ _Engineering to Bridge_ ,” she chirped.

“Bridge here,” Khan and Kirk answered at the same time, then glared at each other over the console.

“ _We’re ready to turn on the impulse engines_ ,” she conveyed, tactfully not adding a title.

“Uh, who’s all down there?” Kirk checked first. “Do you have enough people?” It wasn’t like you could just flip a switch, then go have coffee.

“ _It’s a skeleton crew, but Keenser says we can do it_ ,” Ruby told him confidently. “ _There’s five of us altogether, Grunk and Shabbo and Paul plus me and Keenser._ ”

“Paul? Paul who?” Kirk asked with a frown.

“ _Ensign Paul?_ ” Ruby tried. She lowered her voice. “ _He kind of looks like a bird, I don’t know if that’s polite to say_.” Khan snorted.

“Oh, _that_ Paul,” Kirk remembered. “Okay, turn it on, we’ll just do half-impulse. Quarter,” he amended hastily. “To start.”

“ _Okay!_ ”

After a moment the ship began to rumble slightly and Kirk gently eased Sulu and Chekhov to one side so he could input the speed, check the navigational array, and gingerly putter away from the star system they’d been approaching. It was largely unexplored but had at least one planet with a warp-capable civilization on it. Kirk had been thinking about studying them from afar, maybe making first contact, but if that was the home of the invaders he was going to prepare a little more first.

Khan leaned on the console, watching him with apparent boredom—though Kirk had no doubt he was memorizing every button Kirk pushed. “We were talking about something,” Kirk remembered. “Oh—species?”

“Not in the database,” Khan revealed, “but they look like this.” He held up a yellow oblong object like a giant wrinkled squash. A narrow tube bent down from it at roughly ninety degrees and dripped disconcertingly onto the deck. The main part was encased in what looked like a clear, hard bubble.

“Spacesuit, huh?” Kirk guessed.

“This environment is incompatible with their physiology,” Khan agreed, as if he’d tested that theory.

“That one’s dead, right?”

“Yes.”

“Are any of them still alive?” Kirk asked hopefully.

“That was not my goal,” Khan replied evenly. “So, no.”

“J---s, Khan.”

“They attacked the ship and crew,” Khan reminded him, without concern. “They were prying the gold circuitry out of the walls. Scavengers.”

“Uh-huh. What about their ship?” Kirk asked. “Should I be scanning for it somehow?” He assumed Khan had been thinking about a way to penetrate their stealth mode. When he wasn’t dancing through the empty corridors pretending to be king, that is.

“Kirk, don’t be naïve,” Khan advised. “I _destroyed_ their ship.”

Kirk looked up at him from the console, surprised not so much at Khan’s _urge_ to destroy as his _ability_ to do so. “How?” He was not going to cry too hard over people who had—as Khan said—attacked and scavenged.

“As the computer refused to allow me control of the weapons system,” Khan began, slightly peeved at this but no way was Kirk changing his mind, “we had to improvise. Also note that none of your Starfleet crew who assisted me had sufficient security clearance to access various vital systems, another clear example of the bias against non-hominids—“ Kirk took a breath and gave Khan a look. “We modified the deflector array to emit off-resonance harmonic vibrations,” Khan continued, “which shattered their shields and compromised their structural integrity.”

Kirk blinked at him. “How did you know how to do that?” No more technical manuals for the Augments, even outdated ones.

“It was Lt. Grunk’s idea, she reminded us that certain frequencies can fracture solid objects,” he explained. “Above average mind, wasted in Xenogeology. Just because she’s a silicon-based life form who closely resembles a boulder doesn’t mean her only talents lie in mineral analysis—“

“Khan.” Much as Kirk appreciated the points he was raising, now was really not the time.

“Actually we just piped some music out through the deflector array,” he finished. “Apparently that’s _not_ a classified function. _1812 Overture_ , one of my personal favorites.”

“G-d, that’s brilliant,” Kirk admitted.

“Yes.”

“Kirk to Engineering. I’m taking us up to half-impulse,” he announced, since they hadn’t blown up yet.

“Where are we going?” Khan wanted to know.

“Nowhere,” Kirk replied, carefully guiding the ship there. “I just want to move away from that star system.”

“You think the invaders came from there?” Khan asked suspiciously, as though Kirk was withholding something.

“G-d, Khan, I don’t know,” Kirk complained. “I heard one of the planets had space flight, so maybe.” He looked at the yellow wrinkled thing Khan still balanced on the edge of the console. “I can’t believe they caused so much trouble at their size,” he remarked. “Sorry, was that hominid-ist? You’d think their attack harmonics would work on beings _like_ them, not others.” He frowned suddenly. “Unless they scanned us first, and adapted the weapon to knock out the majority of the crew…” This seemed somehow worse to him, more insidious.

Khan blinked at him. “This is just the head.”

“What?” Kirk sputtered, taking his eyes off the navigational console. The ship wibbled a little—normally several people were guiding it and compensating for all the vagaries of three-dimensional travel. He decided to park until he could wake up some more people to help him. “Khan, why do you have one of their severed heads?”

“The rest of it’s down here,” Khan pointed out, with minor interest.

Kirk left the console to take a better look. The yellow puddle on the floor was apparently alien blood, which had gushed from an alien neck when Khan removed its head, reason still unknown. It seemed fairly hominid, with yellow, lumpy skin mostly surrounded by a spacesuit. “That’s what they looked like, huh?” Kirk commented, trying to remain dispassionate. Well, McCoy could scan it, maybe glean some useful information.

“Yes, all of them on the boarding party, and on the screen when they communicated with us,” Khan confirmed. “Remarkably homogenous on the surface. Have you noticed how most individuals of alien species are superficially much more similar than humans? Like we’re always seeing just one race. _Are_ there no lines with outward diversity, or is their society racially stratified, such that only—“

“Why did they communicate with you?” Kirk interrupted, saving Khan’s fascinating anthropological questions for another time. “When was that?”

“It was only after we had detained their boarding party and blasted their shields,” Khan assured him. “Your computer could not translate their words, but I’m _fairly_ certain they weren’t calling to apologize.”

“And how did this guy lose his head?” Kirk questioned, bracing himself.

“Well, without verbal communication, I had to use actions to convey my displeasure,” Khan shrugged.

Kirk pinched the bridge of his nose. “You ripped the guy’s head off on camera,” he translated. “Did you learn that in Diplomacy 101?”

“They got my message.” Khan found this a perfectly reasonable solution. “It would have been more effective if they’d been able to get home and spread the news that we were not to be trifled with, but then they blew up.”

“ _1812 Overture_ ,” Kirk nodded wearily.

“Cannon sound effects,” Khan agreed. “Worth further research, I’d say.”

“Right. Okay, I need some more of my people awake and running things again,” Kirk announced, stepping over to Spock. Khan didn’t follow. “You guys have done a great job, thanks for saving us all,” Kirk added, in case that was the problem. “We can definitely talk more about hominid biases later.” Khan rolled his eyes. “Well, what?” Kirk finally asked, impatiently. “Can I _please_ get some blood here? Totally respecting your personal autonomy and individuality, etc..” He did not think this summation would offend Khan.

It didn’t. “How thoughtful. Unfortunately, Mr. Spock is a vegetarian,” Khan pointed out, “and therefore his moral principles might be compromised by drinking blood.”

“But it’s only—Mmm.” Kirk narrowed his eyes at Khan. “Why do you care about his moral principles?” he asked suspiciously.

“I don’t,” Khan confirmed blithely. He smirked insufferably. “But _you_ do.”

Kirk wanted Spock awake. He was his right-hand man and would get them back in shape in no time with his logical decision-making abilities. The only way to wake him up, currently, was with Augment blood. And Spock _was_ a rather strict vegetarian.

Khan was perfectly willing to give it. But now he’d put Kirk in the position of turning him down.

“G-------t, Khan,” Kirk snapped in frustration. “Okay, how about Uhura, then?” he added quickly.

“Not a vegetarian?”

“No, I’ve seen her tear into a steak pretty good,” Kirk remembered. Khan went to attend her while Kirk knelt next to Spock, trying to shake him awake (futile as that was).

Kirk heard a feminine gurgle and looked up in time to see Uhura shove Khan away with a wary look. “It’s okay!” he called to her. “Khan’s helping. Maybe you could wake up Sulu and Chekhov next?” he suggested, not wanting the man to get petulant with the ingratitude.

Uhura hurried over to Kirk. “Captain, what’s going on?” she whispered suspiciously, throwing cold looks at Khan. “Spock! Is he okay?”

“Aliens attacked the ship and knocked almost everyone out,” Kirk summarized briefly. “The Augments saved us. We need to get going, though, in case more of the aliens come.”

“The Augments _saved_ us?” Uhura hissed back, glancing at Khan encouraging Sulu and Chekhov back to full alertness.

“Yeah. Well, so he says,” Kirk allowed. The whole thing could be an elaborate plot by Khan—Kirk hadn’t entirely crossed that possibility off the list. “Go down to Sickbay and have Hamish wake up McCoy. Tell him to figure out a stimulant for the rest of the crew that doesn’t involve Augment blood. And start checking some records to confirm Khan’s story.”

Khan popped in between the two of them suddenly. “Why are we whispering?” he whispered, obnoxiously. “We aren’t going to wake them by being too noisy. Also, I can hear everything you’re saying,” he added in a normal tone.

Kirk rolled his eyes and nodded to Uhura, who jumped up and headed to the lift on her mission. “You will find everything as I’ve explained it to you, Kirk,” Khan assured him.

“You’d check if you were me,” Kirk predicted dryly, and Khan acknowledged this. “Hey, you guys okay?” Kirk added to Sulu and Chekhov, who groggily responded. “Alien attack, start checking all the systems. Move us out into clear space, no faster than impulse. Keep the shields up and be alert for anything weird on the scanners, the hostiles have stealth technology.”

“May I recommend continued use of the _1812 Overture_?” Khan suggested politely. “It should allow us to find any other ships lurking nearby.”

“Good idea,” Kirk was forced to admit. “Keep blasting music from the deflector array.”

“Yes, sir,” Chekhov agreed, with only slight hesitation.

“Such a loyal and trusting crew,” Khan commented. Kirk assumed it was meant as a compliment, though he never said them in the right tone. “May I add that the officers who assisted us were uniformly able and cohesive in their defense of the ship? I’ll write you a full report.”

“Thanks,” Kirk told him, settling into his chair. “Engineering. Ruby, could you wake up Scotty, please? Have him check everything and let me know when we have warp.”

“ _Yes, Captain!_ ”

He’d barely closed that channel when another one opened. “ _Hamish to Khan. Lt. Uhura is here, she says I should wake up Dr. McCoy_.” Clearly he was double-checking with his own commander and Kirk gave Khan a pointed look.

“My crew is also loyal. To me,” Khan noted unnecessarily. It wasn’t exactly a threat, more a boast, so Kirk let it go. “Yes, Hamish, go ahead. Kirk is back in charge now. McCoy is to awaken the rest of the crew without using our blood.”

“Much as I appreciate it,” Kirk added hastily. “But, you know, it’s kind of personal, and a little gruesome. With occasional philosophical difficulties,” he went on, thinking darkly of Spock. “McCoy will figure out an alternative.” He always did.

“ _Okay_ ,” Hamish agreed easily. “ _Might take me a bit to figure out how to wake him, though_.”

Kirk and Khan frowned simultaneously; Kirk let the other man handle it. “Just give him some of your blood,” Khan said, thinking this obvious.

“ _No_ ,” Hamish replied, thinking _this_ obvious.

Kirk looked at Khan with a raised eyebrow as if to say, _problem_? Khan gritted his teeth. “Hamish, now is not the time for—“

“ _Now is_ exactly _the time_ ,” Hamish contradicted.

There seemed to be some history here that Kirk was unaware of. What else was new. Since it affected his chief medical officer being awakened, however, he felt he had to step in. “Uh, Hamish, why don’t you want to use your blood?” he asked reasonably. “I’m sure it won’t take much, and McCoy will be fine with it.”

“ _I’m sorry, Captain_ ,” Hamish told him firmly. “ _If this was an emergency, maybe, but… Khan knows why not_.”

“He’s having a moral dilemma,” Khan said, voice dripping with disdain.

“G-d, I hate those,” Kirk deadpanned.

“ _Surprised you even recognize one_ ,” Hamish shot back to Khan. Kirk was glad he was here to witness this disagreement, because he wouldn’t have believed it otherwise. But Hamish did always seem to have a refreshingly different point of view sometimes.

Naturally Khan didn’t think so. “Hamish, you’re being ridiculous,” he pronounced, which really wasn’t going to help the situation.

Another channel opened. “ _Khan, you know how he feels about this_ ,” Ruby counseled. Khan growled in response.

Engineering was a long way from the Bridge, possibly too far for Ruby to work her magic on Khan’s temperament. “Hamish, McCoy has some blood from Khan and Ruby in Sickbay already,” Kirk told him. “Would you be comfortable giving him some of that?”

“ _Well_ …” Hamish hesitated.

“ _I consented_ ,” Ruby assured him.

“As did I,” Khan added sharply. “We all did.”

“I _didn’t_ ,” Hamish clarified. Khan did not like this. “ _Well, I didn’t. But I could use some of theirs, Captain_ ,” he agreed to Kirk.

“Maybe someone else could take care of it, if you don’t feel comfortable,” Kirk offered, luxuriating in his moral superiority over Khan. Probably wasn’t a high bar, though.

“ _No, it’s alright_ ,” Hamish decided. “ _Thank you, Captain_ ,” he added, a bit pointedly.

“Have McCoy call me when he’s up,” Kirk instructed, and closed all the channels.

“He has a mind of his own,” Khan commented. He seemed a bit more philosophical about it now.

“I read that you guys had a tough time when you were younger,” Kirk revealed, trying to sound casual. “Your healing powers were very controversial.” Khan shrugged as if such things no longer bothered him. “Well, I didn’t want to take it for granted, is all.”

“Noted,” said Khan dismissively. “Do you require my help here further, Kirk?”

Kirk glanced around the Bridge. Considering Khan was locked out of every useful station… “No, we’re okay,” he judged. “Where are you going?”

“Engineering,” Khan replied. That seemed safer than Sickbay right now. “I’ll see if Mr. Scott needs my help.”

“Okay. Hey, thanks,” Kirk added, turning his chair as Khan started to enter the lift. “For saving everyone. Except for those aliens,” he added, for the sake of accuracy.

“You’re welcome,” Khan responded matter-of-factly, and disappeared.

Kirk gave a little involuntary shudder. He wasn’t sure which was worse—Khan as an outright enemy, or Khan as an apparent ally who always had his own agenda.


End file.
